Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global will stop all investments in major coal producers. The world’s largest sovereign wealth fund will sell off more than $10 billion of stocks in companies related to fossil fuels following the rubber-stamping of Finance Committee recommendations in Norway’s Parliament today. As part of a broad shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy, the move from Norway’s center-right coalition government confirms several recent announcements including the phasing out of oil exploration and coal-related stocks. The new guidelines mean Norway’s Wealth Fund can no longer invest in companies that mine more than 20 million tonnes of coal annually, or generate more than 10,000 MW of power using coal. In practical terms, this means the fund will almost certainly have to sell its 2.03% holding in Glencore, one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of seaborne traded thermal and coking coal. The stake in the British-Swiss multinational is worth more than $1 billion alone. Other forced sales would include a 2.16% stake in Anglo American, worth around $620 million. Glencore is a public company, listed in London and Hong Kong, registered in Jersey, and headquartered in Baar, Switzerland. The Fund first decided to withdraw from coal […]

Grant Brown is a passionate environmentalist, driven by a need to “leave it better than he found it”. This drive, combined with a capacity to understand power solutions of all types, helps him in his day job as VP Marketing at a start up clean technology company. His goal personally as well as professionally, is to help and inspire others to become a part of the green shift and to leave a positive legacy in the world.